


the steps that led me to you

by dinosonzii



Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Falling In Love, Gen, Nyla Harper (mentioned) - Freeform, Slow Burn, Tucy, chenford
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28668966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinosonzii/pseuds/dinosonzii
Summary: Lucy Chen fell in love with Tim Bradford slowly, carefully, step-by-step.
Relationships: Tim Bradford/Lucy Chen
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	the steps that led me to you

**Author's Note:**

> This is set right after the events of S2E12

Lucy turned the ring over and over in her hand, feeling the gentle weight, the smooth stone, the cold metal. It was 2 AM and she couldn’t sleep. She was laid on her couch, staring at the ceiling. Jackson had long since gone to bed. Her thoughts wandered to her first day back. 

_She couldn’t stand any of it; the clapping, as if she had committed some heroic act, or the looks and glances being thrown her way, a mixture of pity and concern, viewing her as helpless, and treating her not as a cop, but as a fragile damsel in distress. But most of all, she couldn’t stand seeing her T.O. and the worry, and the guilt in his eyes. As if she was something to be protected. As if he failed. As if she was now broken in some way. She had thought that riding with Tim would be the fastest way back to normalcy, the no-shortcuts training officer and his boot, just like before. After seeing the way he was acting around her though? She was glad she rode out the first week with Harper._

_Still, Tim found ways to insert himself beside her, asking about her while she was processing perps, while she was finishing up paperwork, while she was getting in some extra physical training, while she was getting coffee. So when Tim had interrupted her session with the punching bag earlier tonight, she was already dreading the conversation. The first bit was... almost normal, though a bit on the ‘nice’ side for the usual Tim Bradford. It was when he doubled back that Lucy’s heart sunk. He went on about scars, both mental and physical, and opened up about his own, but all Lucy could think of at that moment, was how he was a man, how that would never happen to him, how he could never understand. His words, though well-intentioned, only upset her more. She didn’t want to be a survivor, she wanted to be okay. She wanted to feel capable. To feel safe. But she knew Tim meant well, so she swallowed her rage, ready to direct back at the punching bag when he left, only to be surprised when he tossed her the ring._

Lucy looked at the ring she had been fidgeting with for the past hour. It never really occurred to her to ask how they found her. She was surrounded by a good team. Of course, they would find her. But the ring in her palm said otherwise. It said that she was capable. That she led them to her. That she saved herself.

“How did he know…?” she muttered to herself, as she continued to twirl the ring between her fingers. She thought he couldn’t possibly understand, but somehow he knew, just what she needed to feel a little more herself again.

The ring in her hand felt a little heavier now. It was a little more important to her now as if Tim breathed a bit of new life into it. It would be the symbol of her capabilities and strength from now on. 

Lucy’s eyes began to flutter closed, and she tightened her grip on the ring, to make sure it didn’t fall out of her grasp, as she let a welcome unconsciousness envelop her. Her last thoughts before she drifted off, was how he smiled at her before he left. _His smile was a rare sight before, and never directed at her, but he looks good when he smiles… she could get used to his smile…_

When Lucy woke up the next day, she only remembered the strength the ring gave her. The rest was shoved down, to be considered another day when she was in a better place. But deep down inside her, in a place that she couldn’t acknowledge yet, she knew, that the vulnerability and comfort and kindness that Tim showed her that night, could be the first step towards something more.


End file.
